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application of the prophecy to the present purpose depended.

These are all the passages, to which Mr. English refers in proof of the supposition that one of the most considerable effects of the Messiah's reign should be contemporary with its commencement. How improbable this supposition is, will appear from a few considerations.

Mr. English allows, that a great and blessed change is to take place in the condition of men under the Messiah. Is it not contradictory to every principle of our nature, and to all we see of the government of God, to suppose that such a change will be instantaneous? If we compare the present condition of the world with its condition in the primitive ages, what a change has taken place, but how gradually too; and when we reflect that this change is principally external, one of education and refinement, but the change to be produced, under the Messiah's reign, is one of the moral character, it appears little short of absurd to fancy it will be instantaneous. Moral means are gradual, and it was the office of Christ at his advent, to put these means in operation.*

* "We must allow," says Lord Bacon in his Advancement of Learning,' book 2d. "that latitude which is agreeable and familiar unto divine prophecies, being of the nature of the author, with whom a thousand years are but as one day, and therefore they are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have a springing and germinant accomplishment throughout many ages, though the height or fulness of them may refer to some one age." Newton's Dissertation on the Prophecies, Introd.

That their effect would be slowly produced and their power be resisted, is not only a necessary consequence of the evil which is in the world, but was expressly foretold by the prophets. "Lord, who hath believed our report," is the language of Isaiah, in a prediction referred by the Jewish paraphrast to the Messiah. David in a psalm, unanimously acknowledged as a prediction of him, says, "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord and his Messiah." Isaiah says, "of the INCREASE of his government and peace, there shall be no end;", and represents the Messiah as saying, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain ;" and again says, "He shall rebuke many people, and smite the earth with the Rod OF HIS MOUTH." Are not these direct and positive intimations of great and general resistance, which the gospel would experience, and of course, of the gradual progress it would make? Mr. English says, that every tittles of the prophecies must be fulfilled, before assent can be demanded to the pretensions of one who claimed that character. According to him therefore, as he is to prevail over and bless the whole world, no one could believe on him till all had been converted.

* Isaiah liii. 1. The most ancient of the Jewish Commentaries, the Beresith, Rabba, as also Maimonides refer this to the Messiah. Huetii Demonstr. Evan. p. 362.

† Psalm ii.
Isaiah ii. 4. xlix. 4. also Micah iv. 3.
Grounds of Christianity examined, p. 41..

Indeed it is not in the course of cause and effect, that intellectual revolutions, changes in the mental and moral character of nations and the world, should be produced by sudden efforts or violent impulses. The dispensation of the Messiah was indeed to be miraculous, but miraculous only in the application of the means, which were to produce the moral change; there was nothing promised in the means themselves, which should operate with supernatural rapidity. These means were the instruction, example, and the encouragement of powerful motives, which the Messiah was to afford. The Mosaick dispensation was miraculous, and furnished with an apparatus of means, usually much more effectual in their operation upon common minds, than those which were assigned to Christianity; but the truth of the unity and supremacy of God, the great truth which this dispensation was intended to impress on the minds of the Jews, does not appear to have gained a general and genuine credence, till after the Babylonian captivity, a period of one thousand years from the time of Moses.* How unauthorized the expectation therefore that, on the advent of the Messiah, an era of peace, happiness, and virtue, would immediately commence on earth; how inconsistent with the known constitution of our minds, and the established laws of improvement! Christianity, as might be expected of a moral system, offers * Lessing's sämmtliche Schriften. Th. v. p. 77, 78.

no constraint to the understanding or the will of men. It addresses them as intelligent, rational beings, free to choose, and able to refuse. It operates on their conduct not by mechanical force, nor yet by mysterious impulse. But it teaches, exhorts, and warns them. And must not the effect of all this discipline be gradual, in the individual, and still more so in the world? While passion exists, will it not operate, while our nature is imperfect, will it not fall into errour? To remedy this imperfection and correct this errour, must be a long and gradual work. Christianity has begun it, in introducing and cultivating the domestick character, one almost unknown in antiquity, and in revealing the all-powerful sanctions of the future state. The effects are known. It has turned some of the old virtues into vices, and some of the old glories into shame. This may be seen on the publick theatre of the world, where the degradation of the female character, the cruel contests of gladiators, and the miseries of domestick slavery,* with other spots on the ancient character yet more offensive, have passed away. But it is too true that tlre mighty passions which agitate the publick intercourse of the world, are almost beyond the direct reach of moral means. The trophies of the gospel are in a humbler sphere, the path of social private duty, the season of trial, suffering, and sor

It must be lamented that some sad exceptions prevent the uni versal application of this remark to nations professedly Christian.

row, and the hour of death. Its power and its spirit shine on these, its hopes and comforts gather here, and while the world without is tossed with the ceaseless storm of passion and vice, a patient, submissive, and faithful character has been formed and cherished within the church, which gives the last grace to human nature, and seals the assurance of heaven. And thus it will still continue to operate; the character of man will be improved hereafter, as it has been heretofore, by slow accessions of piety and virtue; which after being long and often displayed by individuals, will be gradually attached to the publick standard of character, and copied into the lives of the mass of men.

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